Myasishchev DVB-102

The Myasishchev DVB-102 was a long range, high-altitude bomber of which only two prototypes were built. It's origins can be traced back to 1939 when the Soviet Government foresaw the need for a long-range bomber.
The aircraft was proposed by Vladimir M. Myasishchev, main chief engineer of his own aircraft design bureau in the USSR. Its design was approved in early 1940 and in June the construction of the prototype began. The DVB-102 was developed simultaneously with other projects like the high-speed interceptor DVB-100 (a design that never went beyond the drawing board), the Petlyakov Pe-2 or the Tupolev Tu-2 and the Tomashevich I-110.
One year later, in summer 1941, the first fuselage was complete and so static tests began, however due to the quick German advance, the factory where the works were taking place had to be displaced so it wasn't until spring 1942 that the first prototype was ready for flight testing.
Due to bureaucracy and war shortages, in winter 1942 the first prototype was brought to the VVS' (Soviet Air Force) airfield to be tested. It was powered by two Klimov M-120TK engines which yielded, each of them, a power of 1.800 hp and were equipped with TK-3 turbocompressors. After having been test flown, construction of a second prototype began.
In fall 1943, the prototype was handed back to Myasishchev to be improved, as there were many flaws detected by the VVS. However, by that time, the factory was dedicated to manufacture the Petlyakov Pe-2 (some of them being modified) and, many new variants, with many engines, were designed, however only one seemed factible: the one powered with M-71 engines and TK-3 compressors, which, in fact was flight tested in high-altitude tests during March to July 1944-1945.
It was defensively armed with two 20 mm ShVAK cannons, one in the nose and other one in a dorsal turret plus one 12,7 mm BK machine gun placed in a remotely-operated ventral position. The theoretical payload was of 2.000 kg (4.409 pounds) with an overload of almost 4.000 kg. When tested it achieved an altitude of 11.500 m (37.729 ft) high with a theoretical range of 3.600 km (2.236 milles) powered by a M-71F engine.
However, the M-71F engine showed poor numbers, specially regarding maintenance and performance and, on 20th July 1945 during a test flight one of the engines failed, and, due to the lack of replacements for such engine, combined with the study of the more promising Tupolev Tu-4 (the Soviet copy of the B-29), lead to the mothballing of every Myasishchev's aircraft at Frunze Central Aerodrome, and, eventually scrapped. In 1946 the OKB-482 (Myasishchev design bureau) was closed, but in spite of the requirements of the VVS, the bureau wasn't restored until the 1950s and their previously designed aircraft were quickly forgotten.
Some of the ideas applied to the DVB-102 were however, applied to later designs like the Ilyushin Il-22 or Il-28.

Sources:
1. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/dvb-102.htm
2. http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/mjas-102.php
3. https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/myasishchev-aircraft.779/

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17SN

The MiG-17SN has been one of the most interesting projects carried out by the MiG OKB. The entire project was based on the theory that the use of flexible cannons on a single seat fighter was an effective way to bring your weapons to bear on an enemy aircraft in a fast way, making that only the guns, not the entire aircraft, had to be aimed at the target.
The project involved Mikoyan-Gurevich and Soviet cannon manufacturers Afanasseyev and Makarov. They designed the flexible cannon system that was going to be installed in the fighter. The SN prototype was a standard MiG-17 with a complete redesigned nose which made it 1.069 m (3.5 ft) longer. In order to mount the gun system the frontal air intake was deleted and replaced by bifurcated fuselage sides mounted air intakes.
The SV-25-MiG-17 armament system fitted into the MiG-17 consisted of three TBK-495 23 mm cannons installed in the nose, two on the port side and one on the starboard side. The guns were able to rotate vertically in an arc of  + 27 degrees 26' and -9 degrees 48'. The guns were electrically aimed and had a rate of 250 rounds per minute with the entire system weighing 469 kg (1033 pounds).
Tests at Mikoyan's factory began in 1953 with test pilot G. Mossolov at the commands. The state trials took place on Flight Research Institue (NII-VVS) from 15th February 1954 onwars. The SV-25-MiG-17 system was also installed on an Ilyushin Il-28 bomber in order to train pilots in the use of the turret. The MiG-17SN underwent only three test flights involving air-to-air firings and thirteen flights were executed against ground-based targets.
It was powered by the Klimov VK-1A engine which delivered 6041 lb of thrust power, the same one that powered the MiG-17.
Tests showed that theory and practice differ strongly from each other as they showed the great difficulty to aim the articulated weapons from high speed aircraft. One of the aiming problems was that angles of +/- 10 degrees required a special gunsight. Trials also showed that the MiG-17SN was around 60 km (37 milles) slower than a standard MiG-17. Given the serious aiming difficulties and the performance problems of the prototype, the project was abandoned.

Sources:
1. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 125 - MiG-17 Fresco in Action
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-17
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
4. Midland Publishing - Aerofax - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 The Soviet Union's Jet Fighter of the Fifties

Tomashevich I-110

Dimitrii L. Tomashevich was Polikarpov's deputy and he was imprisoned for the failure of the Polikarpov I-180 design. Later, he was transferred from the special prison KB-29 to Kulomzino, a suburb in the city of Omsk, in October 1941. He was allowed to establish his own project bureau and designed a single-seat fighter named simply as "samolet 110" (the word "samolet" in Russian means aircraft).
He emphasized the suitability for dispersed manufacture, mainly by semi-skilled and un-skilled labour and easeness of repair in primitive field conditions. The I-110 was of mixed construction, with a two-spar wooden wing and welded steel tube fuselage. Wings, fixed tail surfaces and aft fuselage had bakelite ply, or shpon, skinning. The rest of the fuselage was covered by a light alloy.
Only one prototype was built, clearly influenced by the Curtiss P-40, and was powered by a single Klimov M-107P 12-cylinder Vee-type rated at 1400hp. It was well armed for the time as it was armed with a single 20mm ShVAK cannon firing through the propeller hub, two 12,7mm UB on the nose plus two additional 7,62mm ShKAS placed in the wings which were later eliminated. Theoretically it could carry also 500kg of bombs in external hardpoints.
The prototype was accepted for state trials in 1942 and in 1943 it was accepted. During that period it was flown by pilots P.Stefanovsky and engineer V. Bolotnikov. During tests it reached a speed of 508km/h (316mph) on sea level and 610km/h (379mph) at 6000m (19685ft). However, during trials, the Klimov engine showed many flaws due to its experimental state. It suffered from frequent overheating and there were already another combat-proven fighters being manufactured on Soviet factories like the Yakovlev Yak-1, the LaGG-3 or the Lavochkin La-5, plus American and British aircraft sold on the lend-lease program, so the project was discontinued.

Sources:
1. http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/tomashevich-110.php
2. https://www.ecured.cu/Tomashevich_110 (translated)
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Ilyushin Il-22

As today starts 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, what better than a Russian aircraft to celebrate it?
The Ilyushin Il-22 was a jet bomber aicraft that had the honour of being the first Russian jet-bomber to fly.
Ordered by the council of ministers on 12th February 1946, Ilyushin started to work on a bomber that would be powered by the new TR-1 jet engines. As experiments with jet-powered fighters showed, there were many high speed flight problems, and Ilyushin worked hard to mitigate them. Therefore, in spite of the conventional looking shape of the unswept wing, it was designed to improve lateral stability at high angles of attack and to prevent the onset on tip stall.
It was also discovered that jet fighters unexpectedly dropped a wing at high speed and altitudes. An investigation on this problem traced its roots on manufacturing defects in the wings that made no difference at low speeds and altitudes, but meant that each wing had a slightly different airfoil and therefore, a different amount of lift. In order to counter that problem, Sergey Ilyushin and his team developed a new manufacturing technique which, although it imposed a small weight penalty due to new welding techniques, had the advantage of greatly accelerating the assembly process as the internal equipment could be installed before the halves were joined together, allowing that way to various teams to work on a single sub-assembly before they were mated.
The engines, four Lyul'ka TR-1 with 12,75KN (2870lbf) each, where chosen to be placed ahead and below the wing leading edge in short horizontal pylons, unlike most of the jet-bomber of its time, which had the engines either buried into the fuselage (increasing the risk of a total failure in case of fire, albeit offering better aerodynamical improvements) or having them into nacelles attached directly to the underside of the wing.
The chose configuration proved to be beneficial acting as an anti-flutter weights and proved to be more efficient than underwing nacelles, keeping one of the main advantage of the nacelles, which was the easy access for ground crew to the engines.
As neither fuselage or wings offered enough space to store the main landing gear, the fuselage was designed as flattened oval to give them as wide a track as possible. That fuselage configuration also gave plenty of space to the fuel depots, as it could carry 9300kg (20500lb) of fuel stored in three bags, one placed each ahead, above and behind the bomb bay which had a payload of 300kg (6600lb) of bombs and the nose was rounded and largely glazed (like the Boeing B-29, Heinkel He.111 or Arado Ar.234, among others) to reduce drag.
It had a crew of five, with two pilots in the nose, a bombardier-navigator in front of them, a dorsal gunner who was also the radioman just behind the pilots and the rear-gunner just behind the tail.
It had a defensive armament of a single fixed 23mm (0.91in) Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 autocannon on the lower starboard side of the nose which could be fired by the pilot and was aimed with a rather primitive ring-sight. Dorsal turret was equipped with two 20mm (0.79in) Berezin B-20E guns and was capable of traversing 360º with special microswitches that prevented the gunner from shooting the aircraft tail. It was remotely controlled by the radio operator and was powered by electric motours both for traversing and elevation. A small observation blister was added for the gunner and his gunsight at the rear of the main crew compartment to help laying the guns on their target, and the sight automatically compensated for parallax between the gunner and the turret and also for the required amount of target lead and the shell's ballistics. The remote turret system offered many advantages including a smaller turret which offered less drag, the guns could be fixed more rigidly to their mounts, the sight wasn't exposed to vibrations from firing and could track targets softer and gunner's confort did not have to be sacrificed to better operate the turret.
Anyway, the major disadvantage was that the analog computer remote control system was too complicated for the period and was prone to breaking down, just like the systems present also at the Boeing B-29. The rear gunner was placed behind the tail, at the very end of the fuselage in order to optimize his field of fire in an electro-hydraulically powered Il-KU3 turret which mounted another 23mm NS-23 cannon. That turret could traverse a total of 140º with an elevation of 35º and a depress of 30º.
The prototype was hastly assembled and flew for the first time on 24th July 1947. It showed docile flying characteristics, but it was seriously underpowered as the TR-1 engines provided only 80% of the required thrust. When it was tested by the manufacturers, it made the first ever Soviet jet-assisted takeoff on 7th February 1948 with a pair of SR-2 boosters attached. As thrust engines couldn't be increased in time, Ilyushin decided to no submit the bomber for state acceptance trials as its performance didn't meet the requirements made back in 1946.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-22
2. http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/il-22.php

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-5IT

As it was originally planned, the second prototype of the MiG-5 was going to be powered by two M-40 diesel engines rated each of them at 1500hp because diesel engines would, theoretically, offer greater range than gasoline powered one due to the lower fuel consumption.
However, the second prototype, AKA MiG IT (as MiG design bureau named it) or MiG DIS-200 (as it was called by the military designation), encountered a number of problems that hindered its development. That's why the second prototype was, in the end, fitted with two ASh-82 fourteen cylinder two-row radial engines rated at 1676hp each.
The decission of adopting radial engines led to a redesign of the engine nacelles, so, compared to the original DIS, the main wheel cover doors were enlarged and bulged and it was equipped with Hucks-type starter lugs on the propeller spinners.
Development works started at Moscow-Khodinka, but, as the state factory had to be evacuated due to the German offensive, the unfinished DIS-200 was taken East to Kuibyshev delaying the project seriously.
It wasn't until 22nd January 1942 that the prototype flew for the first time, but, after being tested at the factory in Kazan, the program came to an end shortly after in 1942 as aerial combat experience in the Eastern Front showed that there was no need for a long-range escort fighter as most bombing run missions performed by the Petlyakov Pe-2 and Ilyushin DB-3 bombers were of short duration and could be perfectly escorted by the already existing Lavochkin and Yakovlev single-engined fighters.

Sources:
1. http://www.airpages.ru/eng/ru/mig5_2.shtml
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_DIS
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-5

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-5, AKA MiG-5T or MiG DIS-200, was a twin-engined escort fighter that was designed and developed to escort the Ilyushin DB-3 and the Petlyakov Pe-8 bombers of the Soviet Air Force with the possibility of performing secondary roles such as long-range reconnaissance, light-bombing or even torpedo-bombing. As the Soviet Air Force showed interest in the project and about some possible mass-manufacturing of the type, the official MiG-5 designation was allocated.
Design work started back in early 1940 and it was the first twin-engined aircraft designed by the MiG design bureau and it was going to be powered by two AM-37 engines rated at 1400hp each. It was also equipped with two AV-5I-Il-4 three-bladed propellers. It has also the honour of being the first Soviet aircraft to be equipped with pneumatically operated landing gear.
It was intended to be armed with two Berezin UB 12,7mm (0.5in) plus four ShKAS 7.62mm (0.3in) plus one VYA 23mm (0.9in) cannon in an under-fuselage pod, some very heavy weapon setting for a Soviet aircraft of the time. The VYA cannon was developed by A.A. Voronov and S.Y. Yartsev in 1940 and it was a formidable weapon able to penetrate 25mm (0.1in) thich armour at a distance of 400 meters (1312ft). The cannon pod could be replaced by either a payload of 1000Kg. (2205lb) of bombs or a Type 45-36 torpedo.
The unarmed DIS prototype was built at State Aircraft Factory Number 1 at Moscow-Khodinka and made its maiden flight on 19th May 1941 and state acceptance trials showed a top speed of 560km/h (348mph) which was 104Km/h (65mph) slower than expected. In an attempt to gain more speed, propellers were replaced by two four-bladed AV-9B-L-149 together with some minor aerodynamical improvements. Those modifications managed to increase the speed by 40km/h (25mph). The prototype had a rate of climb 15m/sec (2982ft/min) to 5000 meters (10404ft) with a range of 2280km (1417 miles).

Sources:
1. http://www.airpages.ru/eng/ru/mig5.shtml
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_DIS
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Moskalev SAM-13

The Moskalev SAM-13 was a Soviet two-engined pusher-puller low-wing fighter. It was made by OKB-31 and designed by Aleksandr S. Moskalev. It was developed in the USSR in the very late 1930s and remained only in prototype stage.
Its characteristic two engine configuration, being each of them a Renault-Bengasi MV-6 yielding each of them 220hp of power. Each of them was placed aft and forward of the engine and were set in a puller-pusher configuration. It had a double vertical stabilizer and a single horizontal stabilizer connecting both vertical ones. It was flown only twice at the commands of Nikolay Filson at the end of 1940 where many flaws were encountered and its development was halted due to the beginning of the war in the east.
Aleksandr S. Moskalev started this project back in 1938 after having seen the mock-up of the Dutch Fokker D.XXIII which was presented to the public in the International Aeronautical Salon of Paris-Le Bourget in 1938.
The Moskalev was built entirely out of wood and its design was initially interesting considering how it could get the best from such low powered engines. It was one of the first Russian aircraft to have a retractable tricycle landing gear. Thanks to the position of the cockpit, the pilot enjoyed a nice field of view thanks also to its plexiglas canopy.
Thanks to the good aerodynamics and its lightweight of just 1183kg, the aircraft had an excellent ratio of weight/power of 5.9lb/hp (2.7kg/hp) which proved to yield a nice speed when tested at sea level of 292mph (470km/h) and 422mph (680km/h) at an altittude of 19000ft (5800m) in the year 1940.
However, the problems found at the tests, were because the vertical/horizontal stabilizers were too close to the back engine which caused serious drag problems. Furthermore, the cooling of the back engine wasn't optimal and during take-off and landing the debris caused by the landing gear could seriously damage the cooling system of the back engine. The pilot was also unprotected in the case of a harsh landing as the impact could launch the back engine towards the cockpit.
In spite of the better performance achieved when compared to the other single-engined fighters of the time, the project was abandoned due to the German invasion in June 1941 mainly because it was hard to find an adequate armament fitting configuration which was expect to be of two forward firing 7.62mm ShKAS machine guns.
As we like sometimes to imagine new colours for the airplanes, we decided to draw two what-if versions. One serving with the Soviet Air Force and another serving with the hypothetical Russian Air Force because what-ifs are always interesting. We decided to arm them with two 7,62mm ShKAS machine-gun pods placed under the wings.

Sources:
1. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moskalev_SAM-13 (translated)
2. Salamander Books - The Complete book of Fighters

Kocherigin BSh-1

At the end of 1935, the USSR received information about the American light bomber and attack aircraft Vultee V-11. Under orders of the People's Commissar of Defence Kliment E. Voroshilov showed interest on the project in order to replace the outdated Soviet attack biplanes like the Polikarpov R-5Sh.
Therefore, the Vultee V-11 was included in the list of purchase licenses and, on 11th April 1935 negotiations with Vultee began.
Both Soviets and Vultee reached an agreement and four Vultee V-11GB were sold to the USSR together with production blueprints adapted to the metric system. These weren't the standard type as they had a crew of three, one pilot, a rear-gunner and one navigator-bombardier.
It was powered by a single Shvetsov ASh-62 rated at 1000hp (746Kw) radial engine and was armed with four forward firing 7.92mm ShKas machine guns mounted in the wings with 3600 rounds in total. It could also carry up to 400Kg (881lb) of ordnance under the fuselage. As defensive armament, it had one 7.92mm Shkas at the end of the canopy and another one that was deployed on a hatch ventrally placed just behind the one at the of the canopy.
The first Kocherigin BSh-1 rolled out of the factory on 11th December 1936 and it was tested so it wasn't until mid 1937 that it entered into production. It was found however that the armour fitted for the ground attack role, reduced performance greatly and it was decided to stop production after only 31 aircraft were manufactured. As they proved to be not suitable for service in the VVS (Soviet Air Force) they were transferred to Aeroflot, which redesignated them as Kocherigin PS-43 and used them as high-speed transports until June 1941 when Germany invaded. Then they were transferred both to the VVS and PVO (Soviet Air Defence).
They served all-through World War 2 and, albeit serving in small numbers, they were present at the Battle of Stalingrad as they were the ones, together with outdated Polikarpov R-5, that delivered air mail to the sieged troops. However, casualties were heavy and by 1st June 1944 there were only 9 of them active and by the end of that year, 8 serving with the 1st Baltic Front and 2nd and 3rd Byelorussian fronts as par of the 3rd Communications Division air unit. By the beginning of 1945 as the lend-leased Douglas A-20 and B-25 were somewhat outdated, they were sent to the 3rd Communications Division to serve in the liaison role so the extremely worn-out and old PS-43 were written-off. By September there weren't any Kocherigin BSh-1 or PS-43 active inside the USSR.
Finally we decided that this aircraft would fit perfectly in an alternate history universe where the Whites won the Russian civil war, so we decided to paint one of them in Russian Aeronaval colours.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vultee_V-11
2. http://www.airwar.ru/enc/aww2/bsh1.html (translated)

Antonov E-153 & Antonov Masha

And now, we continue with another fighter designed by Antonov, the Antonov Masha, AKA Antonov M.

After the OKB abandoned the Antonov Salamandra, they started working on a lightweight tailless fighter in a flying wing configuration. According to official instructions, it had to be powered by two RD-10 engines which had to be feed by root intakes. The wing had 60º of sweep on the leading edge and had full span flaps plus all-flying forward-swept ailerons, the latter forming the outer-wing sections.
Twin fins were used, mounted at the tips inside the ailerons, and it would've been armed with four 23mm cannons or two 37mm plus two 23mm ones, housed underneath the intake and underneath the nose. It would've had a trycicle undercarriage and was named "Masha" or, abbreviated just M as it was designed by A.A. Batumov and V.A. Dominikovskiy.
It was almost completed when the OKB was told to replace the RD-10 with an RD-45 (a copy of the British Rolls-Royce Nene) in 1947, and that required the airplane to be redesigned. In fact, apart from the forward fuselage, the redesign was almost total and, after some wind tunnel tests, the construction of the prototype proceeded with haste.
The redesigned layout of the fuselage had a new wing with a larger span and area and was, in fact, a delta wing. The root intakes and the tip ailerons were also replaced by elevons. It was stimated that it could've reach 5000m in five minutes, having a service ceiling of 10000m and a range, when flying at 8000 of 620km (385 miles). A 1/10 model was built to check the flying and spinning characteristics and make some performance stimations, but it was impossible to make all that with just a scale model, so it was decided to build a scale mock-up glider, the E-153.

The Antonov E-153 was the designation given to a full-sized glider made out of wood which served also a structural and equipment mock-up for the Antonov Masha. It was to be launched using a dolly as an undercarriage, to be jettisoned after having taken-off, whilst a fixed skid was fitted for landing.
However, in July 1948, shortly before the glider flight test, both Masha and E-153 were terminated by order of the Soviet MAP (the Ministry of Aviation Industry) as they considered that there were already many fighter designs.
When the order was issued, the prototype of the Masha was almost completed and Antonov was disappointed as he thought that the Masha would have been far more maneouvrable than any of the other designs and he felt that it should have flown. There was also potential for radar equipment and for a more powerful engine to be fitted.

Source:
1. Midland Publishing - Soviet Secret Projects - Fighters since 1945

Antonov Salamandra

We make a brief visit to the USSR to cover some never materialized projects made by Antonov, which was famous for designing and manufacturing big cargo airplanes, and enormous strategical bombers.

The first project to cover is the Antonov Salamandra. Back in the days when Antonov design bureau was newly founded, they had a go at fighter design, even if they had their design staff cut by a third. During the World War II, Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov, worked for the design department of Yakovlev as a deputy. He was impressed by the Heinkel He.162 "Salamander", which was designed and produced incredibly fast during the closing stages of the war. That aircraft, as it's widely known, had the engine mounted on top of the fuselage and also twin tail fins to keep the rudders out of jet efflux, so it comes no surprise that the Antonov design copied this layout and was also called Salamandra (Salamander). The design began in the spring 1946, just after the completion of the Antonov An-2 design.

Antonov Salamandra

It was powered by a single RD-10 engine on the back of the fuselage and this position removed the risk of ingestion and foreign object damage coming from rough field operations, which was the intended field of act of this airplane and also made the maintenance of the airplane easier.

A wind test model was tested on 6th April 1946, but Antonov received intructions from the NKAP (the Soviet bureau of new technology) ordering them to concentrate in a new fighter design powered by two RD-10 engines. Therefore, Antonov abandoned the project and concentrated on the Antonov M or Antonov Masha.

Unfortunately as we couldn't find blueprints of profile drawings for this one, we couldn't draw it. However we found two pics of the wind test model.

Antonov Salamandra

Source:
1. Midland Publishing - Soviet Secret Projects - Fighters since 1945

Unbuilt Alekseyev projects

This is another special post in order to cover the unbuilt Alekseyev projects. Sadly it has not any pics because we couldn't find many info about them:

• I-210: The original version of the I-211, powered by a pair of Tumanskii RD-20, a copy of the German BMW 003, jet engines. Never went beyond the desing board given the availability of the better Lyul'ka TR-1 engines which powered the I-211.
• I-211S: The I-211 with backwards swept wings and tail. Unfortunately the blueprints we found for this one are not in good quality so we couldn't drawn it. 
• UTI-212: Trainer two-seater version of the I-212. 
• I-213: Apparently another version of the I-212. Further details are unknown.
• I-214: An I-212 version with the tail berbette replaced by a rearwards facing radar and even heavier forward armament. Intended as a specialized night fighter.
• I-215D: An I-215 with a by-cycle undercarriage. Built by OKB-21 order.
• I-217: Proposed version of the I-212 with two sub-variants, one with forward swept wings and backwards swept tail and another one with backwards swept wings and backwards swept tail.

A blueprint of a I-211S (AKA I-211C Arrow).

A general diagram showing various sub-variants.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alekseyev_I-21
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alekseyev_I-212
3. http://survincity.com/2012/05/transformer-alexeev-i-211-215-216-okb-21-fighter/

Alekseyev I-216

We start this week with an unbuilt variant of the Alekseyev I-215.

The Alekseyev I-216 was a ground attack variant of the Alekseyev I-215.
It was designed to carry a pair of 75mm Nudelmann H-76 guns in the nose and, in order to do so, the wings would have needed to be redesigned.

Apparently it would've been powered by the same license-built Rolls-Royce Derwent that powered the I-215.

Something is certain, if this airplane would've been completed and flown, it would've been, for its', time the fighter with the biggest artillery guns in the world.

Sources:
1. http://survincity.com/2012/05/transformer-alexeev-i-211-215-216-okb-21-fighter/

Alekseyev I-211/DB-83

Today we continue with the Alekseyevs' fighters and now it's the time for a never built project of them.

The Alekseyev I-211/DB-83 was a never-built project in order to create an escort fighter using the fuselage of the I-211.

Featuring the same amount of fuel and the much more economical piston engines, which by the mid-40s they had been perfected to a point that they were very reliable, it was obvious that the Soviet Air Force needed an escort fighter in order to protect their bombers, mainly the Tupolev Tu-4 (which was a copy of the American B-29 Superfortress).

Alekseyev proposed to attach two 1850hp Shvetsov radial engines to the wings (the same type of engine that the Lavochkin La-9 had) , instead of the jet engines.

Anyway, the project never went beyond the paper as the escort role was already performed by the Lavochkin La-9/La-11 or even some early reliable jet fighters like the MiG-9.

Sources:
1. http://survincity.com/2012/05/transformer-alexeev-i-211-215-216-okb-21-fighter/